Cult orientation happened on 23rd July this year. It is the event in which every club comes together on one platform to showcase the freshie junta of IIT Bombay their respective genres. Hence, there is a healthy competition by each club to make the freshies stand up on their toes through their showcase. This competition goes beyond the normal performances, speeches and videos presented by each club to more intense gaali fight (slang exchange), shouting, clapping and cheering for freshie hostels. It was the same this year also, only instead of “H10 humara hai” or “H3 ki maa ka ***”, it was “H15A humara hai” and “H15B ki something something”. But what did not change was the effort put up by every club to lure the freshers into their respective clubs. We saw great performances by all performing and non performing genres, and our dramatics club FourthWall also performed outstandingly and left the crowd cheering the loudest for us :-). The performance started with the famous ‘Sonu ka Gold Medal’, the entertaining spoof on present JEE system and mockery of the whole two years of family pressure experienced by the JEE aspirants. The crowd was very energetic and responded like crazy having gone through the entire procedure very recently. It was followed by the famous trio Badri, Ayush, and Aditya’s stand up performance on what to actually expect after coming to IIT Bombay (pun intended :-p). Freshies burst into laughter and the response of the crowd was like madness. It sure was a hell of an entertainment for freshies and kind of a peep in for what they are about to experience in the coming days in IIT Bombay. Later the FourthWall council introduced themselves and informed the crowd about the level of professionalism the institute had attained in all these years in dramatics. Kudos to team FourthWall for being the rockstar of the Cult orientation. 🙂

A new and one of its kind initiative by the club the Institute Cultural Council, aimed at those who have enthusiasm to act but hesitate in performing on stage and also to those who have acted sometimes back in their life but could not continue due to some or the other reason. Also this initiative reached out to many others who are enthusiastic but did not get any platform so far.

The event was held on 15th June in the newly announced Theatre Room, and the turn out of the people was really amazing. The special guest were our own Dean of Student affair Yagnik sir, who encouraged the participants by coming to the event and taking out time from his hectic schedule. Around 8 performances, including monologues and one acts, mentored and scripted by seniors like Vikas Pandey, Aditya Buddhadev, Shakti Sharma, Urbashi Sarkar, Jigar Sura, Ayush Gupta and Ratan Guha were staged during the event. These performances were all new and were never before performed in an IIT stage. The noticeable thing in this event was the way UG and PG students came up and collaborated with each other to bring out the performances from those students who are not usually stage addict. Considering that fact, the event saw really great quality of acting, scripting and directing.

All in all, a very good initiative by club and the Institute Cultural Council to come out and welcome people from outside the club to come up, interact with seniors, and most importantly, showcase themselves on stage. One can surely hope to see more of such refreshing initiatives and events from the dramatics club.

Kohl-lined eyes, trademark tikka, minimal accessories, elegant sari, hair neatly plaited and an ear-to-ear smile, quite unlike her multi-layered music, Shubha Mudgal the person is plain and understated. But put her before the mike and she at once acquires a striking persona. It’s all in her full-throated voice. It’s the voice with a cross-generational appeal. It’s the voice that comfortably traverses genres. It’s the voice that oozes sensuousness and emotion in the switch of a tune. So, you can hear a classical thumri or dadra, a hard-rocking “Ab ke saawan”, the resonant “Ali more angana” or a moving “Pyar ke geet”.

A post graduate in music and trained by several gurus, including Pandit Vinay Chandra Maudgalya, Pandit Jitendra Abhisheki and Pandit Kumar Gandharva, Shubha scaled the musical charts with her album “Ali More Angana” in 1996. “Though it was talked about a lot, it was certainly not my first album as many think. I had done enough classical work before (since 1986), which were well received. Anyway I didn’t get carried away by all the attention as the album was just an extension of my artistic endeavours.”Her foray into the field of popular music was quite incidental. Shubha has done extensive research in ancient and medieval music, particularly bhakti sahitya to know how it can guide and add depth to sangeet. “Because when I started learning I was told that music and devotion are synonymous. That’s why Indian music is meditative and soothing. This is one of the reasons why I took diksha into a Krishna sect. The importance they give to music is absolutely moving. They make two kinds of offerings to the Lord – bhog seva and raga seva. This tikka, which many see as a stylised bindi, is a symbol of belonging to this group,” says this first generation musician, whose parents taught English at the Allahabad University. Though her world revolves around melody, she is an avid sari collector and a foodie, who savours all kinds of vegetarian preparations. Khana or gaana, Shubha Mudgal prefers a delicious variety. She has conceptualized this year’s very famous play in TheaterFest “Stories In a Song”. Fourthwall salutes her for her great contribution to the world of Music and Musical Theatre on the occasion of *TheaterFest 2012.*

The annual Theatre festival of IIT Bombay is going to be held on 29th 30th and 31st October . With the venue being the newly renovated , Grand Convocation Hall and the play lineup boasting of names as impressive as highly reviewed Stories in a Song and much awarded Baghdad Wedding the Festival promises to be Bigger, Better and a much more enjoyable affair than ever.
Keep watching this space for more information and detailed reviews of the plays.

The institute cultural orientation was held on July 23rd . Here is a short review of the performance written by our very own Aman Singhal .

Celebrate endings-for they precede new beginnings

We don’t have very good food served in the hostel mess but it never tasted more tasteless. May be I was rushing up for the orientation as it would be (I hope it should be) the last one of my IIT stay I’d get to attend. Albeit in different representations, I have been a part of it all these years; as a freshman, as a hostel secretary to cheer my hostel up, as an actor and as a fourth wall council member.

I was sitting in the very front row and had taken hold of my seat prior to the event commencement as I didn’t want to miss any glimpse. While reminiscing from the old good times, a part of me still wants to jump out of that seat and scream as no one cares. But no matter what I was thinking back then, for now without any further redundancy, I’ll do what I’ve been asked for and write what this space is meant for.

The play starts with an introduction song, where verma ji gets to know about Sharma ji’s son who made it to IIT Bombay. He, under social stress then takes his irresponsible son to Coaching guru and after outwearing shoes on paying huge fee amounts; his son Sonu finally succeeds to make it to IIT. As a whole, the play speaks about the rugged life of students during JEE preparation, and the sacrifices their parents make. Though it’s a firm satire on the private coaching institutes and exploiting business in the name of education, it delivers the message in a much more humorous manner.

The play was little lethargic in the start and few of the actors seemed to be fumbling with their dialogues. It consequently impaired the sync at times but picked up the slack soon after it received a huge emboldening from the freshmen’s end. Some of the scenes which I personally think turned out to be really good, include the cheerleader’s one; the news reading where miming act adds flavor to the plate; the one where they overload Sonu with books; and the portrayal of computer on JEE result.

Overall, it was a great collective effort by sophomores and a wonderful time for the audience. Girls did complete justice to their roles. I liked the co-ordination between Rewa and that mime guy during the news reading scene. Ayush did justice to his father role as well. Sargun looked pretty natural as a coaching guru. Aditya very well played the overstated reporter and Ankit too came out to be impressive in all his scenes.

But the performance leaps up to another benchmark after Badri and Abhishek’s unannounced entry. Abhishek has his own way of mimicking various actors and captivating the audience while Badri only needs few of his body moves to all steal the show. No doubts Badri with his empyreal performance would have had a huge female fan base by now 😛 Cheers to both of them for bringing on stage all young content in a very short time. As they say, even the loftiest towers rise from the ground, I believe that hard beginnings always make a good end. I couldn’t ask for a better finish and I am glad that we have such gems in our club to shoulder up.

In the end of the line, it was nostalgically delighting to watch new talent setting their foot upon the LT stage. ‘Sonu ka gold medal’ will keep coming fresh every time we watch it unless Sibbal succeeds in calling the JEE off. With all these talented sophomores and an awesome council, future of the fourth wall seems to be pretty bright and promising. I hope this year turns out to be the best year for all of us.